Presentation of dissertation literature review encompassing multiple historical and theoretical backgrounds to define the MOOC not as a learning model but as an educational phenomenon.

1. MOOC CARTOGRAPHY
Mapping the Massive Learning Model Across Theory, Pedagogy & History
Rolin Moe
Ed.D Candidate, Learning Technologies
Pepperdine University
Twitter - @RMoeJo
About Me– http://rolinmoe.org
About MOOCs – http://allmoocs.wordpress.com
Dissertation Proposal - http://prezi.com/dhlgix-6bjag/the-evolution-impact-of-the-mooc/

2. PURPOSE OF PRESENTATION
•
Utilizing a thorough literature review to adequately define Massive Open Online Courses
(MOOCs) along a variety of strata
• History of Education
• Educational Philosophy/Theory
• Cultural & Political Interpretations of Education
•
Importance of adequately defining MOOC
•
Discussion & debate that would benefit via an accepted definition of the model

3. A (RHETORICAL) BATTLE OF EPIC PROPORTIONS
MOOCs are a lightning strike on a rotten tree.
- Clay Shirky
There’s a tsunami coming.
- John Hennessey (President, Stanford Univ.)
The MOOC revolution…is here and real.
- Thomas Friedman

4. Gustave Dore, Illustration of Paradise Lost. 1866

5. January Suchodolski, Battle of Berezina. 1866.

7. THERE ARE NO XMOOCS
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In differentiating the various MOOC models, C. Osvaldo Rodriguez (2012) labeled the
connectivism-borne MOOCs as cMOOCs, and the Stanford model MOOCs as aiMOOCs.
http://www.eurodl.org/?article=516
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MOOC discussion, as catalyzed by various media outlets and forms (example – Tamar
Lewin’s MOOCs, Large Courses Open to All, Topple Campus Walls http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/education/moocs-large-courses-open-to-all-topplecampus-walls.html), began using MOOC to label the AI borne courses in early 2012,
paying no heed to cMOOCs. The courses and platforms of Coursera, Udacity and edX
are just MOOCs.
•
xMOOC was first used by Tanya Roscorla in defining the emerging LMS movement
against the connectivist history http://www.centerdigitaled.com/policy/MOOCs-Here-toStay.html
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The use of xMOOC since has largely been pejorative, creating “us vs. them” mentality
rather than allowing for serious debate.

8. DOMINANT MOOC IDEOLOGY
Influences
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Cognitive Learning
•
Memory Recall
•
Khan Academy
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Divine Right / Cult of
Personality Instigation

9. A HISTORY OF EDUCATION
(DOMINANT IDEOLOGY)
Salman Khan & Michael Noer, A History of Education. Via Forbes.

10. A HISTORY OF EDUCATION (ABRIDGED)
(UDACITY IDEOLOGY)

11. THE PROBLEM WITH STRUCTURAL DEFINITION
OF MOOC (AND EDUCATION IN GENERAL)
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Education is a societal superstructure
(Marx). Within an institution a
structural definition is sufficient for
operations, but across a
superstructure such a definition omits
the numerous variables at play in
superstructures.
•
The acute focus of researchers and
practitioners to debate what MOOC
means as a structure not only ignores
the larger debate of MOOCs as
representative of higher education
shifts, but it fails to engage a dominant
paradigm that has never debated the
structural meaning.
Inforgraphic by Mathieu Plourde
based on Jon Becker’s posit

12. TO DEFINE THE MOOC WE NEED TO
INCORPORATE MULTIPLE HISTORIES
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Distance Education
•
Online Learning
•
Machine Learning
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Education Theory
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Education Policy
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Education & Economics
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Education Access

13. MOOCS & DISTANCE EDUCATION - ABRIDGED
via Soren Nipper’s Three Generations of
Distance Education (1989)
Notable Examples
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1st Generation – Correspondence
(1850s – 1910s). Inexpensive
production and distribution.
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University of London International
Programmes (1858) – first HE
accrediting correspondence body
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2nd Generation – Broadcast &
Multimedia. Use of radio, TV, and in
some cases computers. Method of
learning stays same, delivery change.
•
Cornell University’s Correspondence
College (closed in 1883; never
admitted a student)
•
Television Broadcast Training
Programs via Stanford University,
University of Nebraska (1970s, 1980s)
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3rd Generation – Telecommunications.
Not just computers, but the difference
between one-way and two-way
communication for learner and expert.

14. MOOCS & ONLINE LEARNING - ABRIDGED
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PLATO (1960s – present) – a
computer-aided instructional program
through the University of Illinois
offering content modules via terminal
interaction.
•
MIT OCW (2001) – Initiative by MIT to
put course syllabi and materials online
for interested parties.
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Fathom/AllLearn – two higher
education conglomerations designed
to offer lifelong learning opportunities
for institutional alumni through
pedagogy similar to the MOOC (video
lecture, interactive assessment). With
no options for credit and a need to
charge tuition, both programs closed.

15. COGNITIVE LEARNING - ABRIDGED
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A large split in learning theory at the
dawn of cognitive theory.
•
One group (largely educators and
psychologists) ended up following
learning and interaction to social
learning theory, constructivism,
constructionism, activity theory, etc.
Despite gains and monumental
theory shifts, many classrooms still
operate via cognition theory
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Another group (largely computer
scientists) looked at cognition in
artificial intelligence (expert
systems, connectionism, intelligent
agents). The AI Winter of the late
80s-early 90s saw economic
setback that would not recover until
the mid-2000s.

16. Adventure through Inner Space (sponsored by Monsanto), Monsanto Hall of Chemistry
Disneyland’s Tomorrowland, 1955.

17. Clockwise fro left: Morgan Freeman as Principal Joe Clark in 1989 feature Lean on Me; Michelle Pfeiffer as 2nd Lieutenant LouAnne Johnson in 1995 feature
Dangerous Minds; Robin Williams as John Keating in 1989 feature Dead Poets Society; Geoffrey Canada, CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone, in 2010 documentary
Waiting for Superman.

18. EDUCATION POLICY – ABRIDGED (USA-CENTRIC)
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In the USA, education is a superstructure
organized and regulated on a state level.
•
The initial history of federal intervention
in higher education (Morrill Land Grant
Act, GI Bill, Higher Education Act of
1965) was designed primarily to provide
money and land for state or individual
use toward HE
•
Recent federal intervention has focused
more on solidifying results (A Nation at
Risk, NCLB, Race to the Top).
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There is more government oversight and
less government money in education
today than at any time in US History

19. EDUCATION ACCESS (YES…ABRIDGED)
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1000s – Education is offered through sacred
institutions to young men of nobility
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Enlightenment – shift in philosophical thinking
that pushes the religious and noble out of
education requirement
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1860s – Morrill Land Grant Act designates
space and finance for higher education, further
eroding classist change
•
The GI Bill, Women’s Suffrage and the Civil
Rights Era culminate in the Higher Education
Act of 1965, designating numerous monetary
options for those pursuing higher ed.
•
Gert Biesta, Henry Giroux, Noam Chomsky
and others would say we are in an age of
neoliberalism, where politicians believe free
market commerce is necessary to fix the
problems that ail superstructures.

20. CAN WE DEFINE THE MOOC PHENOMENON?
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Learning model taking advantage of
social media opportunities
•
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Learning model taking advantage of a
continually lower operational cost to
produce and distribute quality
broadcast education
A phenomenon in conjunction with a
rise in artificial intelligence/machine
learning popularity and utility
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A phenomenon denoting society’s shift
in technological thinking but inertia in
psychological/theoretical
understanding
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A learning model indicative of a
political climate of public-private
partnerships and outsourcing
(neoliberalism?)
•
Learning model viewed as favorable
for a society in economic hardship
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Learning model favorable for private
enterprise
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A phenomenon purporting the best
idealism of higher education but
largely ignorant of issues behind the
struggle of the education
superstructure

21. THE PATH OF THE RESEARCH – IN PROCESS
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Currently employing a Delphi study with
20 experts from a variety of MOOCrelated disciplines to help define the
phenomenon, its place in history, its
cultural and political impact, and its effect
on the future of higher education.
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Blah blah blah tenured humanities
professor sanctimony. Explain to me
how you occupy the moral high ground
when your students graduate $30000
in debt and have no marketable skills.
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Panelists come from fields of MOOC
development, MOOC professors,
distance education/online education
researchers, political/corporate/economic
voices in education, and media/cultural
critics focusing on education
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MOOCs reflect changes in education.
In themselves, they are not "disruptive'
(what a terrible word - it needs to be
taken out back and shot and never
used again by educators).
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Discussion centered around 12
quotations from MOOC literature,
paraphrased in order to focus on debate
rather than identity.
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In many ways I think [MOOCs are] a
better practice than going to a lecture
in a classroom.